That’s all it took for a number of Trucking Industry Executives, Staff, O/O’s and Drivers to walk around the world (25,000 miles) as an industry.
The industry started on this journey on July 1 at 12:01AM. Healthy Trucker (a division of NAL Insurance) partnered with Transportation Media to bring the very first Healthy Fleet Challenge to our industry. This challenge was set up to bring more awareness to getting up and walking more. It’s no secret that our industry struggles with good health. The Healthy Fleet Challenge was a fun way to encourage trucking company executives, O/O’s, Drivers and Staff to do something about the sedentary lifestyle many of us live.
In just over 3 short weeks of the challenge, more than 30 teams were made up of over 300 participants measured their steps with a FitBit Device (wearable technology) or Moves Application (which converts an iPhone or Android phone into a 
pedometer). They walked, ran, skipped and worked out to more than 50,000,000 steps and burning more than 2,300,000 calories as an industry. If this was set up as a weight loss challenge, this many calories could be an equivalent to losing up to 657 pounds! Although the initial goal of the challenge was to walk 25,000 miles as an industry (once around the world), everyone we spoke to feels they have too much momentum going at their company to stop now and wants the challenge to continue. Even though the only prize offered were bragging rights, it’s incredible to see what a little competition has done for moral at many of the companies that have participated. Every fleet that we spoke to felt the challenge added value to their wellness goals. Sheldon Hayes, Manager, Safety, Compliance and Recruiting at C.A.T. told us “We continually look for ways to promote healthy choices for our C.A.T. team members and were very excited to be able to participate. The response we had to our communication about the Challenge was tremendous, with a total of 29 people having stepped up within a week.”
“One of the many great things about the Challenge is how easy it was to join” suggested Hayes. “The website has helped bring our people together by having fun monitoring each other’s steps, and engaging in lots of good-natured competition for bragging rights.” Teams were ranked by using the last 7 day’s step average and individuals and were also ranked on a daily basis as to who took the most steps on any given day at their respective companies as well as how they ranked with all individuals in the challenge. “There is far too much interest from all participants to quit now” reports Aaron Lindsay, Healthy Trucker’s Marketing Manager. “The website reset July 31st and we will keep it open and continue posting everyone steps. Healthy Trucker is currently working on the next Challenge that will begin September 1st and the leaderboard will be an even bigger event.
In the meantime, fleets and allied trades are invited to continue to build their teams and hold their own internal challenges. To add a team to the next challenge, visit www.healthyfleet.com.
About the Author
Glenn Caldwell is the Vice-President of Sales for NAL Insurance Inc. of London ON. For over 25 years, Glenn has worked closely with many fleets across the country to ensure their Owner/Operators have the protection they need to Keep Rollin’.
You can reach him (800) 265 1657-3350 gcaldwell@nalinsurance.com www.nalinsurance.com www.healthytrucker.com.
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